Entries with the tag: dan boyle

It certainly wasn’t the most exciting hockey game but the New York Rangers did what they needed to do in shutting out the Florida Panthers by a score of at Madsion Square Garden.

The win gives the Blueshirts points 83 and 84, is their fifth straight victory and also marks Henrik Lundqvist’s 10th shutout of the season as well as his 32nd win on the year. All big things happening for the Blueshirts right now and with the way the team is playing, it is certainly well deserved.

The Blueshirts had plenty of scoring chances throughout the game but Panthers’ netminder Tomas Vokoun was up to the task time and time again. That is, until Rangers’ forward Brandon Dubinsky put in a great pass from Ryan Callahan and gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead close to eight minutes into the third period.

The team also got strong performances from the line of Brandon Prust-Brian Boyle-Ruslan Fedotenko as that line peppered Vokoun all night long, forechecked hard, generated scoring chances and play well on both sides of the puck. Marian Gaborik also had another strong night as he had four shots on goal, showed a lot of speed and looked more and more like the Gaborik of last season.

It certainly was not their best game of the season but it wasn’t exactly their worst as the New York Rangers fell to the Florida Panthers by a score of 4-3.

The Panthers got the game-winner when Panthers’ Mike Weaver took shot from the point that was going wide and instead, it ended up hitting Rangers’ forward Artem Anisimov’s shoulder and popped up in the air and landed behind Lundqvist to give the Panthers a 4-3 lead and ultimately, the victory.

While that was a negative for the Blueshirts, there were also several positives. Down 3-1 going into the third period, the Rangers’ battled back on goals by Brandon Prust and Dan Boyle to tie the game. For Boyle, it was his team leading 18th goal of the season, a number that I don’t think anyone expected him to have heading into the season.

Another positive for the Rangers was the play of Mats Zuccarello. Zuccarello picked up three assists. Zuccarello knows how to set-up his teammates, knows how to get to loose pucks and knows how to use his speed to create scoring opportunities, all skills that will allow him to have success in the NHL.

When New York Rangers’ fans heard that Martin Biron was starting last night against the Washington Capitals, they all thought that head coach John Tortorella was giving the game away and hoping to pick up two points tonight against the Panthers.

As it turns out, they were wrong and the Blueshirts came away with a 2-1 shootout victory, thanks partly to some timely goaltending from Biron and a terrific defensive effort. The defense held the Capitals to just 23 shots and did a solid job of keeping the likes of Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Mike Green, Mike Knuble and others quiet on their way to another road victory.

Fifty-two minutes into the game, the Rangers were down 1-0 until Marian Gaborik tied it up when a Dan Boyle shot ffrom the top of the circle hit off Capitals’ netminder Braden Holtby and then deflected off Gaborik’s shoulder and in. It may not have been Gaborik’s prettiest goal but it was a goal that the team needed and a goal that will hopefully get Gaborik going offensively on a consistent basis.

In the shootout, the team got two great goals from Mats Zuccarello (4/4 in the shootout this season and in his career) and the eventual game winning goal from Artem Anisimov, his first ever shootout goal, giving the team its second straight shootout victory.

If there was ever a game that the New York Rangers could use as a measuring stick, tonight’s tilt with the San Jose Sharks in San Jose would be that game.

San Jose comes into tonight’s matchup sporting a 25-4-3 record, good for 53 points and the top spot in both the Western Conference and the Natioanl Hockey League. On the other side, the Bluershirts come into tonight’s game with a 22-11-2 record, 46 points and sits in second place in the Eastern Conference (at least until all the other teams catch up in games played).

In his Rangers Report Blog, Journal News Ranger beat writer Sam Weinman says that tonight’s game could be a game where the Rangers realize that they’re not that far off or they could realize that they still have a lot of work to do to become a Stanley Cup contender.